Dr Criss Jones Diaz

• Biography
• Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
• Publications
• Contact Details

Biography

Dr Criss Jones Díaz has been a teacher educator for over twenty years. Prior to her commencement as a lecturer at the University of Western Sydney, she taught English as a second language in Central America and the Caribbean where she learnt Spanish as a second language. Her professional background is grounded in education and community contexts where she has actively promoted equity and social justice for children and families from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. In recent years, she has collaborated with practitioners from various children's services to establish home language and bilingual support programs. This involves intensive professional development on language learning and retention issues, observation and assessment procedures and pedagogical practice. She has also worked closely with the NSW Department of Education and Training providing professional development to Community Language and ESL teachers. In her capacity as a volunteer she is the Principal and Treasurer of a not-for-profit Community Language Spanish School, affiliated with DET (NSW) which offers Latin American Spanish to primary aged children in the Inner West of Sydney.

She has recently completed her PhD investigating the complex articulation between languages, identity, power and education in bilingual children and families from Latin American-Australian backgrounds. In 2009, she was awarded the Beth Southwell Research Award for outstanding thesis by the NSW Institute for Educational Research. Her research and publication interests are primarily in critical and cultural studies with an emphasis on languages, literacies and identity negotiation in contexts of diversity and difference. She has been involved in a number of collaborative research projects: 'Mapping Early Literacy Practices in Early Childhood Services', 'Literacies, Communities and Under 5s' and 'Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood'. She has published numerous journal articles and is the co-author of One Childhood Many Languages: Guidelines for Early Childhood Education in Australia,  co-editor of Literacies in Early Childhood: Changing Views, Challenging Practice, co-author of Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood Education. Issues for Theory and Practice and co-editor of Literacies in Education: Changing Views, Challenging Practice (2nd edition). Currently, she is a Chief Investigator in the UTS / DOCs ARC study in collaboration with UW and Notre Dame University investigating early literacy in informal settings in Pacific, Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Diversity and difference in early childhood and primary education - Sociocritical perspectives.
Bilingualism and languages learning in childhood – Critical and cultural theory.
Literacies in childhood – Critical and cultural theory.

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Qualifications

DipTeach (GTC), GradDip (UTS), MA (UTS), PhD (UWS)

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Grants and Current Projects

Transnational families and their children’s experiences of education in the early years: investigating issues of identity, languages and school change

Developing early literacy in informal settings: engaging disadvantaged Aboriginal and CALD families outside formal settings. With Professor Alastair Pennycook, Associate Professor Pauline Gibbons, Dr Liam Morgan (UTS), Dr Ken Cruickshank (UW), Associate Professor (UND)

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Publications

Jones Díaz, C. (2011) Children’s voices: Spanish in urban multilingual and multicultural Australia. In K. Potowski & J. Rothman (eds) Bilingual youth:  Spanish in English-speaking societies, John Benjamins Publishing Company

Jones Díaz, C (2007) Intersections between language retention and identities in young bilingual children. Unpublished doctoral thesis, UWS: Sydney.

Makin, L. Jones Díaz, C. & McLaughlan, C. (2007) (eds) Literacies in childhood:  changing views, challenging practice (2nd ed) Elsevier: Sydney.

Jones Díaz, C. & Harvey, N. (2007) Other words, other worlds: Bilingual identities and literacy in L. Makin, C Jones Díaz, & C. McLaughlan, (eds) Literacies in childhood:  Changing views, challenging practice (2nd ed) Elsevier: Sydney.

Jones Díaz, C. (2007) Literacy as social practice, in L. Makin, C. Jones Díaz, & C. McLaughlan C., (eds) Literacies in childhood: Changing views, challenging practice  (2nd ed) Elsevier: Sydney.

Jones Díaz, C. Beecher, B. & Arthur, L.  (2007) Children’s worlds globalisation and critical literacy in L. Makin, C. Jones Díaz, & C. McLaughlan, (eds) Literacies in childhood:  Changing views, challenging practice (2nd ed) Elsevier: Sydney.

Jones Díaz, C. (2006) Diaspora, hybridity and growing up bilingual in a globalized world, Paper presented at the Australian Association Research in Education Conference Dissent: Constructive Solutions. UWS, Parramatta NSW 27th November – 1st December, 2005.

Robinson, K.H., & Jones Díaz, C. (2006) Diversity and difference in early childhood education: Issues for theory and practice. Open University Press: London.

Jones Díaz, (2004) Difference and diversity at the University of Western Sydney, Teaching Education, Vol. 15, No. 1: 97 – 101.

Jones Díaz, C. (2003). Latino/a voices in Australia: Negotiating bilingual identity in early childhood education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Vol. 4, No.1: 314 – 336.
 
Makin, L. & Jones Díaz, C. (2002). (eds) Literacies in Early Childhood: Changing views, challenging practice. Maclennan & Petty: Rosebery.

Jones Díaz, C. & Harvey, N. (2002). Other words, other worlds: Bilingual identities and literacy. In M. Makin & C Jones Diaz (eds) Literacies in early childhood: Changing views, challenging practice. Maclennan & Petty: Rosebery.

Jones Díaz, C., Beecher, B. & Arthur, L. (2002). Children’s worlds and critical literacy. In M. Makin & C Jones Diaz (eds) Literacies in early childhood: Changing views, challenging practice. Maclennan & Petty: Rosebery.

Jones Díaz, C. & Makin, L. (2002). Literacy as social practice. In M. Makin & C. Jones Diaz (eds) Literacies in early childhood: Changing views, challenging practice. Maclennan & Petty: Rosebery.

Makin, L. & Jones Díaz, C. (2002). New pathways for literacy in early childhood education. In M. Makin & C. Jones Diaz (eds) Literacies in early childhood: Changing views, challenging practice. Maclennan & Petty: Rosebery

Jones Diaz, C. (2001). Multilingual literacies in the classroom. PEN 130. Sydney: Primary English Teaching Association.

Arthur, L. Beecher, B., & Jones Díaz, C. (2001) Early literacy: Congruence and incongruence between homes and early childhood settings. In M. Kalantsiz (Ed).Languages of learning: Changing communication, changing literacy teaching. Common Ground: Victoria.

Jones Díaz, C., Beecher, B., Arthur, L., Ashton, J., Hayden, J., Makin, L., Clugston, L. & McNaught, M. (2000). Literacies, communities and under 5s: The Early Literacy and Social Justice Project. A resource for families and early childhood staff.  DOCS (NSW) and DET (NSW) Sydney.

Robinson, K. & Jones Díaz, C. (2000). Diversity and difference in early childhood: An investigation into centre policies, staff attitudes and practices. A focus on long day care and preschool in the south west and inner west Sydney regions. Funded through The University of Newcastle Research Associates (TUNRA) Limited.

Jones Díaz, C. & Robinson, K. (2000). Diversity and difference in early childhood education in western Sydney. In J. Collins & S. Poynting, The other Sydney: Communities, identities and inequalities in Western Sydney. Pluto Press: Sydney.

Makin, L., Hayden, J. & Jones Díaz, C. (2000). Factors affecting the provision of high quality literacy programs in early childhood settings. An Australian case study, Childhood Education, Vol. 76 No. 6: 368 – 373.

Jones Díaz, C., Arthur, L., Beecher, B. & McNaught, M. (2000). Multiple literacies in early childhood: What do families and communities think about their children’s early literacy learning? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, October, Vol. 23. No. 3: 230 – 244.

Robinson, K. & Jones Díaz, C. (1999). Doing theory with early childhood educators: Understanding difference and diversity in personal and professional contexts, Australian Journal of Early Childhood, Vol. 24 No 4: 33 – 41.

Makin, L. Arthur, B., Beecher, B., Hayden, J., Holland, A., Jones Díaz, C. & McNaught, M. (1999). Mapping literacy practices in early childhood services, Sydney: NSW DET & DCS.

Jones Díaz, C. (1999). (ed.) Bilingualism, biliteracy and beyond. In Bilingualism: building blocks for biliteracy, Conference Proceedings. Language Acquisition Research Centre: University of Western Sydney, Macarthur.

Makin, L., Campbell, J. & Jones Díaz, C. (1995). One childhood many languages: Guidelines for early childhood education, Harpers Educational: Pymble

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